About Me

I am a highly integrative geoscientist with broad technical, operational and commercial experience. My passion is responsibly delivering maximum value from all decisions I am involved with. After completing my PhD at the University of Sydney and a post doctorate in collaboration with TOTAL, I started a position with ExxonMobil in 2007.

ExxonMobil

I have worked on numerous projects at ExxonMobil ranging in geologic scale from plate to pore. You can find a list of projects I have worked here and a summary of my training courses here. I established myself as a proven oil finder discovering the Liza oil field in Guyana in 2015. The Liza field was the largest oil discovery in the industry in 2015, with a published potential recoverable resource of 800 million to 1.4 billion oil-equivalent barrels (ExxonMobil press release). I am presently the Technical Team Lead for the Guyana Development Geoscience team.

Palaeo-Stress Modelling

Using the engineering finite element modelling software package ABAQUS I modelled the horizontal compressive stress of the Indo-Australian plate for time periods dating from the Jurassic. This work was carried out as part of the Tectonic Reactivation and Palaeo-Stress (TRAPS) project in collaboration with Shell, BHP Billiton, Woodside Petroleum and SANTOS in order to create a framework for predicting the tectonic reactivation of faults. The research can also been utilised by gold mining companies to assist exploration and may also prove very useful to seismic studies of Australia.

Lithospheric Extension Modelling

Using the particle in cell finite element modelling software Ellipsis I undertook numerous studies examining the effects various types of lithospheric weakness have on rift geometry during basin extension. By utilising the software programs Ellipsis and Nimrod together I ran many thousands of Ellipsis models in order to ascertain the relative importance of various processes involved in continental rifting. I also worked on creating a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for Ellipsis in order to make the program more accessible with the goal of providing a valuable teaching tool for geodynamicists the world over.